Employees’ use of Internal HR Social Platforms (IHRSP): A qualitative empirical evaluation

• Employee withdrawal from Internal HR Social Platforms (IHRSP) stems from an incongruence between the intended platform function and users' actual experiences. • Employer-imposed content-filtration mechanisms disrupt reciprocity principles, undermining trust and reducing IHRSP participation. • Social Exchange Theory effectively explains how exclusion from participatory design violates mutual exchange expectations in digital HR contexts. • A mixed-methods approach combining 27 interviews with longitudinal analysis of 293 employee comments reveals temporal engagement patterns. • Internally developed IHRSPs face unique challenges related to organizational control, limited design expertise, and insufficient employee involvement. Internal HR Social Platforms (IHRSP) represent contemporary digital communication tools implemented within organizations to facilitate internal collaboration and employee engagement. Despite their potential, organizations often struggle to achieve meaningful employee engagement through these platforms. Anchored in Social Exchange Theory (SET), this study examines how IHRSPs are operationalized in organizational contexts, focusing on factors that influence employees' interactions with these platforms. This study employs a mixed qualitative methodology, integrating semi-structured interviews with twenty-seven participants and longitudinal analysis of two hundred ninety-three employee comments submitted over two years. Thematic analysis was utilized to identify patterns within the data. Findings reveal that employee withdrawal from IHRSP stems from incongruence between the intended platform function and the actual user experience. Specifically, employers' implementation of filtration mechanisms significantly moderated the use of User-Generated Content (UGC), often resulting in delays, censorship, or outright rejection of employee submissions. These practices undermined trust and reciprocity—key SET tenets—and contributed to decreased platform adoption. The study concludes that the ineffective deployment and management of IHRSP—exacerbated by organizational unpreparedness, limited design expertise, and insufficient understanding of platforms' socio-technical nature—result in their failure to serve as practical engagement tools. This research contributes through: (1) theoretical advancement of SET in digital HR contexts, (2) methodological innovation via integration of two qualitative data sources, and (3) practical insights for IHRSP design and governance.